What's new

DE blade sharpening trick, "stolen" from an Amazon review.

I haven't tried this myself, but I just found this trick in an Amazon review of a DE razor:

"How you may ask, do I sharpen a double edge blade? Easy... Take a drinking glass (key word is GLASS not plastic), fill it half full of warm or hot water, take the blade and carefully slide it down the inside edge of the glass with your index finger until it is submerged, then rub it side to side about a dozen times, take it out, flip it over and do the same to the other side. You're good for another 10 to 12 shaves!"

Just to give the proper credit and not be accused of plagiarism, the source was:
Amazon.com: Ray C's review of Parker 66R Butterfly Open Double Edge Safe...
 
I sharpen mine by opening a new one and throwing the dull one away. 10-12 shaves? I don't get 10 shaves out of a new one and I would never attempt it. They use to try to sharpen these back in the day because back then it was no different than it is today with carts, Gillette and every blade maker for that matter was gouging their customers then too. Blades were .5c a piece and believe it or not that wasn't chump change until about 1970. It's so not worth the effort but that's just me.
 
Because blades are .7c-.25c a piece for me I don't see that point in sharpening them. Plus do they really sharpen back up?

I wasn't questioning you, but our OP. At a blade cost of xx cents, a shave may cost a few cents in terms of blade use and I hardly see the point in trying to prolong that.
 

jar_

Too Fugly For Free.
Blade stropping was pretty common up until around the 1970s and actually worked pretty well with carbon steel blades. The newer coated stainless blades though didn't seem to benefit from stropping. But even in the 50s and sixties my face was worth more to me than the savings possible by stretching blade life so at the first tug or pull it was new blade time.
 
R

romsitsa

There were also blade sharpeners made from glass (quite pretty, imho), based on the same technique, so the method works. BUT it was designed for carbon steel blades, not modern, coated, stainless steel ones.
Used with a modern blade the first thing what happens is you remove the protective coating from the blade.

Adam
 

nemo

Lunatic Fringe
Staff member
....But even in the 50s and sixties my face was worth more to me than the savings possible by stretching blade life so at the first tug or pull it was new blade time.

Not to mention the possible slicing of a digit during the sharpening process. Not worth it in my world, either.
 
I prefer the Allegro (although I don't use it).

21165731.jpg
 
Blade stropping was pretty common up until around the 1970s and actually worked pretty well with carbon steel blades. The newer coated stainless blades though didn't seem to benefit from stropping. But even in the 50s and sixties my face was worth more to me than the savings possible by stretching blade life so at the first tug or pull it was new blade time.
People have always been frugal.
Here are a few pictures of a Vintage glass sharpeners.
2Lillicraps 5.jpg

1940McKeeGlassCoSafetyRazorHone9.JPG


And an old thread
Stropping A DE Blade On Glass
 
Brother rff000

The method is well known, frequently tried, but few shavers stay with it.

It gives mediocre results for most of us, and not worth the trouble. And as mentioned above it doesn't work that well with coated blades. But thanks for sharing.

BTW why haven't you tried it? Please try it, and let it know how it worked for you.
 
Brother rff000

The method is well known, frequently tried, but few shavers stay with it.

It gives mediocre results for most of us, and not worth the trouble. And as mentioned above it doesn't work that well with coated blades. But thanks for sharing.

BTW why haven't you tried it? Please try it, and let it know how it worked for you.

My cost per blade is so low that I'm not sure it's worth it. I posted it as a curiosity, in case some people haven't heard about it. I tried stropping SE blades on my palm and on a leather belt, but it had no effect that I could notice.
 
I can't imagine needing to try and prolong a blade when they cost about $0.10 or so hell I remember a few years back they had an as seen on TV Gizmo that was supposed to sharpen carts for cart style razors. That I could probably see because those are expensive.

Sent from my Moto E (4) using Tapatalk
 
Blade stropping was pretty common up until around the 1970s and actually worked pretty well with carbon steel blades. The newer coated stainless blades though didn't seem to benefit from stropping. But even in the 50s and sixties my face was worth more to me than the savings possible by stretching blade life so at the first tug or pull it was new blade time.

+1! Precisely! To me the cost/blade is not worth the risk of the extra handling, cuts, etc.
 
I think that the article shows some benefit if you look at fig5 & fig 6 side by side. Is it worth it probably not but I sure see an improvement especially in a time when blades were "expensive" could probably get a few more adaquate shaves from each blade, which would pay for the stripping device pretty quick back then.
 
Top Bottom